


Awakening, inside a dream, so what are we waiting for?

by voices_in_my_head



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Day 7, Jetko Renaissance Week, Prompt: Free space, another fic where Zuko goes by Li? mayhaps, so I went with "Zuko and Iroh save Jet's life", this is more pre-relationship than anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27174703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: "“You’re not dying. You can’t. You’re… You’re Jet. You’re not supposed to die. Not like this.”Jet smiles – or as much as he can, while he feels like his insides are on fire –, “how else was I going to die? Not asleep in bed, old.”“You could. You can. We… We could give up the fighting. Become farmers.”Jet tries to laugh, but just ends up coughing. It takes a couple seconds for him to be able to talk again, “where would we farm? We live in a city.”“We could move. Anywhere. We could travel. Go to the Northern and Southern Water Tribes.”“I’ve never been away from the Earth Kingdom,” Jet says and feels his throat close up, becausehe’s never going to get to go anywhere else.He’s dying and it’s not fair. Or maybe it is; it’s not like his hands are that clean.But he doesn’t want to die."AU of S2E17 where Iroh and Zuko show up as Jet is dying and save his life.
Relationships: Jet/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 177
Collections: Jetko Renaissance Week





	Awakening, inside a dream, so what are we waiting for?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello, it's the final day, I can't believe.
> 
> I've really enjoyed writing for this week; thanks to everyone who has read, kudoed, bookmarked and commented and all those who come next :) Special thanks to the creators of this week, of course.
> 
> As the summary says, Iroh and Zuko show up and save Jet's life - they were all at Lake Laogai at the same time?? It makes perfect sense?? Anyway, we were robbed.

Jet doesn’t want to die. It’s not that the thought never crossed his mind; how couldn’t it have? But here, in Ba Sing Se, he’d genuinely thought maybe it wouldn’t happen for a while, maybe it wouldn’t even be violent.

He’s in pain, but at least Smellerbee and Longshot are with him. At least Jet isn’t alone.

“It’s gonna be okay,” he mutters and Smellerbee is crying.

“You can’t die. You’re our leader.”

Breathing is becoming harder but Jet still tries his best to smile. He wants to promise again that he’s going to be fine, that he’s not going anywhere. But instead he starts moving his fingers, touches Smellerbee’s leg and she looks down, quickly reaching out with her own hand, squeezing Jet’s.

“Thank you,” he says, squeezes back, hopes she – and Longshot – know everything he’s thanking them for.

“You’re not dying. You can’t. You’re… You’re Jet. You’re not supposed to die. Not like this.”

Jet smiles – or as much as he can, while he feels like his insides are on fire –, “how else was I going to die? Not asleep in bed, old.”

“You could. You can. We… We could give up the fighting. Become farmers.”

Jet tries to laugh, but just ends up coughing. It takes a couple seconds for him to be able to talk again, “where would we farm? We live in a city.”

“We could move. Anywhere. We could travel. Go to the Northern and Southern Water Tribes.”

“I’ve never been away from the Earth Kingdom,” Jet says and feels his throat close up, because _he’s never going to get to go anywhere else_.

He’s dying and it’s not fair. Or maybe it is; it’s not like his hands are that clean.

But he doesn’t want to die.

But if he is, and if Smellerbee and Longshot are going to be with him… Then Jet is going to make sure his last moments don’t haunt them.

“It’s okay. My life… It wasn’t bad. You made it better,” he squeezes Smellerbee’s hand.

“It could be better,” she protests and Jet swallows because he wants that, he wants _better_. He just nods, then turns to Longshot, whose attention is being divided between Jet’s final moments and watching the door.

“Thank you,” Jet says and receives a nod in response – Longshot, at least, definitely knows everything he’s being thanked for. “You two have to look out for each other. Live,” he says, once again squeezing Smellerbee’s hand. It’s getting harder to speak and breathe.

The time is coming.

There are tears at the corners of his eyes, but Jet swallows and pushes them back. He thinks back on just a few hours ago, in that room with the others, when they told him to think of what the Fire Nation did to him. He focuses on that, but not on the fire. He thinks of the before, of his parents. At least he’ll get to see them again.

Suddenly, there’s a noise by the door, but Jet can’t move his neck far enough to see.

“What’s going on?” The voice is familiar but Jet can’t figure out whose it is.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Ah, this voice he does recognize. Li. Or whatever his name is.

“Jet’s dying,” Smellerbee says and sounds angry, but Jet squeezes her hand. He gets where she’s coming from; if he hadn’t decided to expose Li and his uncle as firebenders, he probably wouldn’t be here. But that was still his choice.

“It’s okay,” he says, words lower than they were supposed to be, but even breathing is becoming harder, so.

“It’s not okay,” Smellerbee says, crying harder.

“Maybe we can help,” the first voice – Mushi – says and Jet wants to tell him to leave, him and Li; they’re certainly not the last faces he wants to see. Yet, there is a part of him that suddenly flares with hope. So he stamps out on the urge to tell them to leave; his pride has already led him in enough bad directions… if he can keep quiet and live…

“What happened?” Mushi asks and now Jet can see him, quickly kneeling by his side, hands hovering on top of Jet’s chest.

“The Dai Li crashed a rock against him.”

“Broken ribs, then,” Mushi says, “probably went through a lung.”

“Can you heal him?” The question, surprisingly, comes from Longshot. Jet stares at him, sees the blind look of hope on his face, realizes that he’d just been hiding just how afraid and sad he was at the idea of Jet dying so he wouldn’t have to see it in his last moments.

“Anyone have a knife?”

Smellerbee immediately takes one she keeps tied around her wrist. But she doesn’t pass it right away.

“What are you going to do with it?”

“He’s already dying, what do you think he’s gonna do that could possibly make it worse?” Li asks and he comes to stand by Iroh’s side, next to Jet’s leg, who can see him. His hair’s longer and he looks upset. For the first time, Jet wonders just what exactly these two are doing under Lake Laogai. But the thought is fleeting; concentration is getting harder to grasp.

“It’s okay,” Jet says, turning to Smellerbee and she finally gives the knife to Mushi; it’s not a big one, just something she literally keeps up her sleeve. But Mushi doesn’t seem to mind.

He grabs the handle with one hand, puts the other around the blade. Then his fist catches on fire.

Several things happen at once. Jet gasps, Smellerbee gets up, another knife in her hand, Longshot moves so he has an arrow aimed at Mushi and Li gets up too, clearly in a fire bending position.

“I need to sterilize the blade,” Mushi says, not having moved, nor stopped what he was doing.

“What are you gonna do with it?” Jet asks, can’t keep the fear away. There’s no good reason he’d be sterilizing the knife unless it was to use on Jet.

“The air needs to come out of your lung,” Mushi says, then sends an apologizing glance his way. “This is going to hurt.”

Jet swallows, but nods. Mushi stops the fire, moves Jet’s clothes away from his chest, then moves a hand on top, lightly, to figure out which lung is the worse – spirits, he hopes it’s just one – and then he’s being stabbed and he yells.

“Someone’s going to hear,” someone says but Jet doesn’t have enough presence of mind to figure out who.

Then he gasps in a breath, more easily than before.

“We need to go,” this time Jet recognizes Li’s voice.

“The Dai Li know we were here,” Smellerbee says and Mushi is already buttoning back up Jet’s clothes.

“You can come to our place,” he says, helping Jet to sit up, then to slowly get on his feet.

“Uncle…” Li starts but closes his mouth with a clack, not going further.

Jet leaves with one arm across Mushi’s shoulders and one hand on top of Smellerbee’s shoulder, who has an arm around his waist.

He feels drunk, even though it’s a sensation he’s only felt twice. And from what he does remember, it certainly didn’t hurt this much. But there’s a weightlessness, something making his thoughts run slower.

Suddenly, Jet realizes he’s not afraid he’s dying anymore. He’s not even afraid of Li and Mushi. He’s just… Tired.

“You can’t fall asleep,” Mushi says and Jet nods, forces himself to focus on his feet, one step at a time.

Still, when he sees the ladder they have to go up, he almost cries out. There’s no way he’s making it up.

“I’ll carry you,” Li says and everyone, except his uncle, turns to him like he’s mad. “Just have to secure you to my back.”

“He probably weights more than you do,” Smellerbee says.

“I can do it,” Li says and from his tone, you wouldn’t doubt it. From everything else… “We don’t have another choice.” There is that.

Smellerbee turns her eyes up to Jet, who nods.

So Li crouches down and Jet gets on him, chest touching his back, legs loose around his waist, Li getting up with his hands on his thighs. Longshot, Smellerbee and Mushi are all quick to use whatever clothes they have that are long to tighten Jet to Li, so that he can free his hands and use them to climb.

He goes first, even though Jet can’t see how it’s a good idea – if they’re going to fall, might as well die just the two of them – but the others agree, clearly hoping that if this goes wrong, they’ll be able to keep them from plunging into their deaths.

Once Jet is secured, Li doesn’t waste any time in starting the climb.

Jet feels warm; genuinely cannot tell if it’s the fact he’s pretty much all wrapped up against a firebender, or if he’s running a fever. Right now, he can’t even tell which one he’d prefer.

Li’s breathing starts coming louder, shallower, but he barely slows down as they go higher and higher. Jet remembers their fight, the practiced way Li moved with his swords. He wonders, not for the first time, what his story is.

But back then, Jet and Li had met on a refugee boat and Jet had been sure their stories couldn’t be all that different. Then, he hadn’t actually been interested, but now he does think: _why are firebenders hiding in Ba Sing Se?_ and then _who gave him that scar?_

Li opens the porthole and then they’re out, him laying on his chest and Jet pretty much squeezing him, but it’s not like he’s in any position to try and free himself. Now that the adrenaline of almost dying – again – is fading, he’s back to feeling mushy. He can’t even feel any type of embarrassment for their position.

Longshot is the first one out after them, and immediately starts working on freeing Jet. It’s just as he’s being pushed onto his back that Jet’s consciousness decides it’s finally had enough.

.

Jet is laying on something soft. And he’s warm, warmer than he normally is. And the smell… Flowers. But not like the forest. A softer smell, but somehow like there’s more of it.

He forces his eyes open, looks around; it’s an apartment, not the one he, Smellerbee and Longshot had been sharing.

Tea, he finally realizes. That’s what he’s smelling. Because he’s in Mushi’s and Li’s place.

Jet starts to sit up, but with a groan, ends up laying down again. There’s something squeezing his ribs. He raises the cover on top of him to look down at his chest; dressings are covering a pretty big portion of it.

“My uncle just finished those,” Li says and Jet looks around, finally finds him to the side, by a window, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed.

“Where’s…” Jet starts, then stops with a cough; his throat is dry.

“Your friends are sleeping in my bedroom,” Li doesn’t sound upset about it, moving to the kitchen part of the apartment. He pours water into a cup, then brings it to Jet, who forces himself past the pain to sit up; he’s not letting a firebender treat him like an invalid.

Li rolls his eyes, clearly knowing what he’s up to, but kneels besides him, passing him the cup.

Jet drinks greedily; he can’t remember the last time he drank or ate something. “Thanks,” he mutters. Li grunts in his response.

“Where’s your uncle?”

“Sleeping in his bedroom.”

“Why are you here, then?” Jet asks.

“I’m not sleepy,” Li answers, like it’s that simple.

Jet doesn’t say anything; doesn’t know what to say. The last time they saw each other… well, they were trying to kill each other.

No. Jet was trying to kill Li; Li was defending himself, in complete control of his moves; they were dangerous, but only deadly if Jet lost focus.

“Why were you in the lake?” Jet suddenly asks and Li stares at him for a couple seconds before sighing.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

Jet frowns, but it’s not like he can push, is it? He doesn’t have anything to put over Li’s head. If anything, it’s very much the other way around.

“Why did you help me?”

“My uncle wanted to help you.”

“You’re the one who carried me up. No one else would have been able to.”

Li doesn’t say anything right away. “I don’t hate you, Jet.”

Jet blinks, not having expected that. He opens his mouth, thinks _too bad, because I do hate you_ , then closes it back up.

Does he hate Li? He hates firebenders and if Li is one, then he must hate him. But firebenders just saved his life while people from the Fire Kingdom tried to kill him. Not just that, but they messed with his mind. What if it happens again?

“I should leave,” he says, makes to get up but Li stops him with a hand on his shoulder, forcing him back down.

“My uncle literally just treated you. You won’t make it.”

“I’m not… I’m not safe.”

“What?” Li asks, frowning.

“They messed with my head. The Dai Li. They did something… Brainwashed me. I don’t even… Smellerbee said she hadn’t seen me for weeks, since I’d been arrested. But I don’t remember that,” he blinks, refuses to cry. “What if whatever they did is still there?”

Li stares at him silently for a few seconds. “Then this is the best place for you to be. Me and my uncle won’t let you hurt anyone.”

It’s Jet’s turn to stare; then he laughs. Tries to, anyway. It hurts too much for him to keep it up past the initial two seconds. How has his life come to this? Gone from almost killing a whole village to kill a few firebenders to trusting firebenders with his life so he doesn’t hurt anyone?

Li’s lips are twisting, like he somehow knows what Jet is thinking, even though he can’t know the whole story. But he knows enough to see the irony.

They’re silent after that, but it’s not uncomfortable. It probably should be, but there’s something… Well, Jet had felt a connection with Li on the boat. He’d just decided to ignore it once he saw the truth.

“Is your name even Li and Mushi?”

“No.”

“Are you going to tell me your real names?”

“No.”

“I already know you’re firebenders.”

“That’s not all we are,” Li says and maybe it’s supposed to sound like something more, like that’s why he’s not telling Jet their names, but instead it sounds like an accusation, like there’s more to people than simply the element they bend, or don’t bend.

And, Jet realizes, there is. If people knew all he did… They wouldn’t be looking at him with such good eyes either.

He remembers Katara in the alley, how she attacked him, how she saw him… well, exactly like she did the last time they met. Someone bad. Because that was everything she knew him as.

And Jet, all he’s known of firebenders has been bad. But now… now it’s not everything, not at all.

“Thank you for saving my life,” he says and Li looks surprised at him, then studies him silently for a couple seconds.

“I’m glad we could save your life.”

Jet nods, then puts the cup down and finally, slowly, lies back down. Then he closes his eyes.

He’s got absolutely no idea what the future has in store for him, but at least he does have a future. And he’s not going to squander it.

He turns his face and opens his eyes to see Li, who’s still kneeling, with his eyes closed, breath slow and strong. Jet closes his eyes again. He decides he’s going to make sure his future includes Li. Maybe the connection he felt in the refugee boat wasn’t wrong. At least, he now has a chance to see where it goes. And the secrets… well, they both have them. They’ll deal with them.


End file.
